Georgian scholars fear reforms will entrench government control

The Georgian government’s plan to reform the country’s universities has been met with suspicion by scholars, who see it as an effort to exert more control over institutions as students and staff continue to protest against the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Earlier this month prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that he would lead a new commission on university reform, working alongside education minister Aleksandre Tsuladze, a former Supreme Court judge, and education and science adviser Levan Izoria, a former minister of defence.

Kobakhidze said the commission would “qualitatively transform the university system” over a four-year period, describing the available resources to do so as “very large”. While he did not detail specific reforms, the prime minister commented: “It is quite possible that in four years a Georgian student in Georgia will receive exactly the same quality of education as he receives in European countries.”

The announcement came amid ongoing mass protests, with students and universities at the forefront, after Georgian Dream claimed victory in October’s contested parliamentary elections and subsequently suspended the country’s European Union accession process. Thousands of people have participated in the protests, while Amnesty International has stated that the arrest and use of “unlawful force” against hundreds of demonstrators “amounts to torture and other ill-treatment”.

“My concern is that these reforms will serve to further centralise Georgian Dream’s control and align university governance with the government’s broader political agenda,” said Elene Jibladze, an associate professor in Ilia State University’s School of Education.

The prime minister has repeatedly claimed that Georgian universities are “overly politicised”, Jibladze said, and has accused academic staff of “aligning with the opposition United National Movement”, the ruling party before Georgian Dream won the 2012 parliamentary elections.

“Ironically, while the PM has repeatedly criticised the politicisation of universities, his government has been instrumental in undermining university autonomy”, Jibladze said. While universities are “formally free to elect their own rectors,” she said, “it has become increasingly evident that many rectors are informally nominated or strongly suggested by the ruling party”. Earlier this month, a Georgian Dream official was elected rector of Batumi State University, as students protested outside.

“If this new commission on university reform follows the same trajectory, it risks entrenching government influence rather than addressing the structural issues that hinder Georgian universities,” said Jibladze.

Diana Lezhava, a research fellow in higher education at Georgia’s Center for Social Sciences, claimed that the appointment of Tsuladze and Izoria, who lack higher education expertise, indicated “university reform is not the major aim” of the commission. Rather, she said, the government’s aim was “to transform the education system into a closed and heavily managed apparatus that will be further used to kill academic freedom in Georgia and maintain power”.

Keti Tsotniashvili, associate professor of education policy at Ilia State, said higher education in Georgia was in need of “meaningful reform”, pointing to issues including low investment in research, stagnant university funding, poor quality control and a lack of institutional autonomy. “While reforms are desperately needed, the manner in which they are being pursued, coupled with the existing political climate, leaves no hope for positive change,” she said.

Tamar Tsopurashvili, professor of philosophy at Ilia State, said that universities were “absolutely not involved” in the government’s planned reform. “Nobody has asked the university rectors, ‘What kind of challenges do you have? What should be improved?’”

She predicted that the commission could compel some universities to merge, while “professors who do not conform with government politics” could be forced out of their roles. Pointing to the repression of universities in Hungary under Viktor Orbán, Tsopurashvili feared similar “brutal developments” could take place in Georgia.

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com